Generalized anxiety disorder in adolescents and young adults with mild mental retardation

This report examines clinical features of generalized anxiety disorder in adolescents and young adults with mild mental retardation (MR), compared with children and adolescents with normal IQ. Frequency of symptoms, comorbidity, agreement between reports of subjects and parents, correlation between IQ and severity of disorder, and comparison between frequency of symptoms in the experimental and control groups are described. Twenty-two subjects with MR (12 males and 10 females aged 11-25 years; mean age = 16.3), 30 children (19 males and 11 females aged 7-11.11; mean age = 10), and 30 adolescents (18 males and 12 females aged 12.1-18; mean age = 15.2) participated in the study. All the subjects were comprehensively diagnosed with diagnostic interviews (K-SADS or DICA-R). According to our data, generalized anxiety disorder can be diagnosed in adolescents with mild MR, with high agreement between self-reports and parent reports. Phenomenology of GAD in mildly developmentally delayed persons grossly paralleled that of normal IQ people, except for brooding, somatic complaints, and sleep disorders. Number and severity of symptoms did not correlate with Full Scale and Verbal IQs. High rates of comorbidity with depression were evident both in normal IQ and in developmentally delayed subjects.